With the geriatric population on the rise, design engineers are challenged with designing responsive, noninvasive, user-friendly medical devices that cater to the needs of an older generation. Patients are looking for cost-effective, easy to use assistive tools that help them regain independence and confidence in their everyday life. Force feedback is a key feature for many of these devices that provide the user and doctor with great insight that ultimately results in better quality of life for the patient. Medical devices with force feedback allow design engineers to create innovative products that differentiate them from the competition.

A new potential manufacturing approach from Purdue University researchers harnesses inkjet printing to create devices made of liquid alloys. The resulting stretchable electronics are compatible with soft machines, such as robots that must squeeze through small spaces, or wearable electronics.

The creation of small, portable infusion pumps opened a new chapter in medical care. A patient can receive carefully metered and timed doses of medicine, without requiring a visit to the medical practitioner, allowing life to be less restrictive. Ambulatory pumps have been developed to deliver insulin, nutritive supplements and anticancer drugs.

Mistakes in program design for extractables/leachables testing can lead to significant delays, rounds of questions, and the need for additional testing. And, in some cases, all of the extractables/leachables testing may need to be repeated. To avoid these costly mistakes, it is important to understand the current standards as well as the current interpretations and opinions from regulators interpreting these standards. In this whitepaper the experts from WuXi AppTec discuss the current standards, interpretations and will provide you with tips to avoid common mistakes when designing your program.

How can an organization ensure compliance and streamline the process while mitigating costs? The solution is Risk Management. Many organizations are beginning to use Risk to objectively and systematically streamline their compliance. This white paper uncovers the strategy behind risk in compliance, and the best practices in defining proactive and reactive factors of risk within each organization to reach the highest possible level of quality and compliance.

3D printing is one of the world’s fastest growing technologies, and is already revolutionizing the many areas of medical manufacturing in ways similar to how computers revolutionized communication. Using the right input, medical files such as 2D imaging (MRI or CT scans) can be used to create customized anatomical models, medical devices, and prosthetics. Manufacturing parts in this way reduces time and cost by as much as 80-90%. In this white paper from Stratasys, find out how medical professionals are actively exploring the vast possibilities that 3D printing offers.

This chip can be used as an electrical or optical sensor for the retina.
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California
NASA has patented a new technology called the Vision Chip, an implantable device that has the potential to restore or supplement visual function in a diseased or damaged retina. This technology could benefit millions of people in the US and globally who suffer from degenerative diseases of the eye’s retina such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), retinitis pigmentosa (RP), and, in some cases, diabetic retinopathy. The Vision Chip is targeted to treat AMD and other degenerative diseases of the retina by replacing a compromised retinal photoreceptor system with an array of equivalent external photoreceptors and carbon nanotube (CNT) “towers” (bundles of CNTs) that provide a pathway to transmit signals from the external photoreceptors to an active layer of retina.

Question of the Week

This week's Question: A recent study created by the Arizona-based Paragon Space Development Corporation says its life support system could help humans survive on Mars. The proposed Environmental Control and Life Support System, the company says,...